James Gurney

This daily weblog by Dinotopia creator James Gurney is for illustrators, plein-air painters, sketchers, comic artists, animators, art students, and writers. You'll find practical studio tips, insights into the making of the Dinotopia books, and first-hand reports from art schools and museums.

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or by email:gurneyjourney (at) gmail.comSorry, I can't give personal art advice or portfolio reviews. If you can, it's best to ask art questions in the blog comments.

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All images and text are copyright 2015 James Gurney and/or their respective owners. Dinotopia is a registered trademark of James Gurney. For use of text or images in traditional print media or for any commercial licensing rights, please email me for permission.

However, you can quote images or text without asking permission on your educational or non-commercial blog, website, or Facebook page as long as you give me credit and provide a link back. Students and teachers can also quote images or text for their non-commercial school activity. It's also OK to do an artistic copy of my paintings as a study exercise without asking permission.

Sunday, June 4, 2017

Instead of painting a standard garden vista, I decide to unravel the complicated rhythms of a bank of backlit cinnamon ferns.

A page of my sketchbook is already primed in casein with a color called "vegetable green" or "parent green." This is the standard hue of the transmitted light that filters through new grass or spring foliage. My intention is to cover up over most of the underpainting, but to let it peek through in places.

(Link to video on YouTube)
I'm experimenting with a sighting grid—similar to Durer's or Leonardo's, but modernized. This helps me to efficiently lay down the main lines of the scene. With repetitive natural forms like this, it's easy to lose track of which frond is which. In this case I want to be as specific and accurate as possible; I don't want to resort to generalized painterly handwriting.

I'll share more about grids and other Renaissance devices in the future.

Nicholas, I heard the term from Keith Gunderson, a student of Frank Mason and grand-student of Frank V. Dumond, so evidently the term came from that line. I talk a little more about it on the previous post about the Prismatic Palette, which I added to the end of the post as a live link. http://gurneyjourney.blogspot.com/2014/09/prismatic-palette.html

Since I love your art so much I was wondering how you would go about learning to draw&paint like you if you would start from scratch again ? What would you advice to a 20y/o person more or less completely new to the subject. Drawing from books, videos... I really like your Gumroad tutorials but for me they are at this point more inspiration since I'm not yet able to follow along :)